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FtttG  Gheobhaidh mé bás ar an gcnoc seo.  9hr ago (docs.google.com)   Edited 7hr ago   608 thread views

The Motte infidelity survey

docs.google.com

In yesterday's small-scale questions thread, @cjet79 asks why the song "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers has had such staying power, famously staying in the UK singles charts decades after its initial release. Some explanations (including my own) point to its compositional elements; others focus on its lyrics and subject matter. @100ProofTollBooth argues that it's a very universal and relatable song, as "The experience of infidelity (to some degree) is common to many (most? idk) people."

I'm curious if this is really the case, so I decided to go Aella mode and created a simple survey to find out about people's experiences with infidelity. It consists of a few demographic questions (age, sex, sexual orientation, relationship style), then asks you if you've ever had an unfaithful partner, then asks you if you've ever been unfaithful to a partner.

Completely anonymous, and I've set it up so the form doesn't collect email addresses if you're logged in.

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No email address required.

Isn't it against the rules? When I suggested to do something like that, I was booed. But it's just me.

Btw, your sample is likely to be even more volunteer biased than Aella's

I'm broadly in favour of surveys on here. I want to find out more about our weird little community.

While these type of self-reported surveys may be reliable in the statistical sense (eg people will respond the same way no matter how many times they're asked) in validity terms I wouldn't expect much (eg I wouldn't expect to learn what it is you may be hoping to learn, whether and to what degree folks are cheating cheaters) even with the stated clause that responses are anonymized. For all the same reasons as Aella's "research."

I would be at least mildly surprised if we didn't have at least one or two trolls dropping giant infidelity bombs to set ripples going. People aren't honest or particularly good at self-reflection, and often even when they are, aren't truthful.

The above is my opinion of course so who cares, but decades of indecipherable noise in survey research suggests I am not simply cynical.

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